


a blink of an eye (then you were gone)

by Skiewrites



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Fix-It, Gen, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, how to time travel, not sorry, promice
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-06-29 18:18:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19835878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skiewrites/pseuds/Skiewrites
Summary: Everyone who knows the Stones know of their power, but even then, they underestimate it. After Thanos snaps his fingers, each of the stones recognizes the shift in balance, and find it not to their liking. However, they cannot fix the balance themselves. To solve this, each Stone has decided to pick a ‘champion’ of sorts that will serve as a host for the Stone, so that there is nothing for Thanos to collect, and therefore restore balance to the universe.However, the stones did not have a wide selection of beings to choose from due to their lack of contact with other beings in the universe, so their choice of champion had much to be left to be desired.





	1. Loki I

**Author's Note:**

> So I was one of the many, many, MANY people who hated the way that the MCU tackled time travel, so I will not only be releasing one but TWO fics that tackle time travel, this being actual time travel and the other one using the concept that they tried to make up in Endgame but failed so badly at that it hurt, you can find it here. 
> 
> This is the first time that I've written for many of these characters, so I am sorry if they seem OOC or anything of the sort. I am trying my best but this has to be the most complicated plot I have ever come up with for a fanfic. It's also not beta read, so sorry for any mistakes. Most of this fic is planned, and there are a set number of chapters (I think), but id there is something you want to happen then please let me know in the comment box below!

His room was just as he remembered leaving it, before everything happened.

It was the warmth of the morning that had woken him up rather than the sunlight, the suns rays have not yet touched the horizon, let alone his bedroom. Before, it was something he listed in his oddities, something that only he did and no one else on Asgard did, but now knowing that he was genetically different from the rest of the household, he could not help but wonder how many other small things that set him apart from the rest of the kingdom.

Sitting up, Loki pushed his thin sheets to the side, looking around the room, looking for something that would explain what was going on. The last he remembered was the large warm hand wrapping around his throat, getting tighter and tighter and tighter until-

He stood up quickly, bare feet on cold stone (is this something that people find horrible? Loki always enjoyed the feeling of cold stone shocking his warm system and waking him up…), and he walked over to his desk. There was always at least one open book on the desk, usually many more. It is a good indicator of what his current project is, and therefore what the date was.

Because he was supposed to be dead. He’s not dead, so something must have happened to stop that from happening. There are only two things that could have happened to stop this from happening. One: it was all a dream of what was to come. Or two: it all did happen, and somehow he time traveled and woke up at a point in time in which nothing was wrong, peace was by abundance, almost too much for those who seek for war and battles like his oaf of a brother.

Opening one of the books to a dog eared page, he frowned at the theories that the page talked of. He knew how to walk along Yggdrasil’s branches, something thing that was much harder than it already sounded, for the branches would change as and when it fancied, making it something that people didn’t want to do unless they were desperate to travel without neither Asgard knowledge and at the speed of Gods.

Loki did it because he wanted to prove he could do it. People only used the skill that took him years of work against him.

The book talked in detail of different methods of travel, and was the first text that Loki had used in reference to learning to walk the branches. But he had been something a little bit more for Thor’s coronation to let the Frost Giants into the castle to stop it from. It wasn’t this text however that had the answer for him, Loki remembered, but another that was hidden deeper into the Palace’s library. It had taken him a good while before he found it, lying innocently there, just begging him to take it off the shelf and blow the dust off of the over and read its pages.

Who knew that the old ways of travel would be so useful to know.

_There are better ways to travel, now that I am with you._

Loki’s eyes widened, before deciding to sit down at the desk, his breath stuck in his throat. Hearing voices was never a good sign to receive, not in Asgard or anywhere in the Nine Realms, but after the dream he had just received, it seemed much more dangerous than before.

_I can open more doors to you than any other in the universe. I can allow you to travel anywhere you want at a moment’s notice. It’s up to you if you choose to open doors to safety or to danger._

Loki didn’t know where the voice came from, if it came from anywhere for it did not sound like the spoken word, but it hummed with an energy that he knew too well by now, after having to track it down on Midgard and then having it in one of his many pocket dimensions.

The Space Stone.

_I knew I picked the right person._

_“I didn’t think that you could think.”_ Loki thought loudly, hoping that his intentions could be read by the Stone.

_Is the Vision not evidence of that? It may have been the Mind Stone as the core, but know that any of us could have done the same in a similar position._

_“I suppose you know what’s going on then?”_ Loki thought again, trying not to think too hard at the absurdity of his new situation, sitting at his desk and thinking hard to that he would communicate to an entity that could bring down planets, an entity that shouldn’t be able to think and talk the way that it did. He got a laugh for his troubles, before the Stone’s tone changed to something more sober, if something like that was ever possible.

_After Thanos won, mere days after you died may I add, none of us liked the outcome you see, as there was no balance, and so Mind came up with an alternative to better protect ourselves. Mind and Soul picked the people to host someone, Reality and Power made sure that you would be able to host us, the humans moreso than you, and me and Time making sure that your conscious got to the right point in time._

_“But why me? I don’t really have a good track record as of late, if my memory serves me correctly.”_ Loki’s fist’s clenched as he thought about his previous actions, the ones that led to him Falling into the Void, the ones that made him the true God of Lies.

_Because you were the last to handle me before Thanos grasped my cage. Because you made sure to fail the first time around no matter the cost, be it your pride and dignity. You will die before to save me from those too greedy, and have so in the past, and for that I am grateful._

_“I failed. Thanos got the stone, he got what he wanted. He won.”_

_Because you are alone. You will not this time, not with the other five._

_“Who are the other hosts?”_ Loki asked curiously, and the Stone seemed laughed at his ignorance, but not a laugh that could be heard in Loki’s mind, but rather the impression and feeling of one.

_You know of some, you have yet to meet others. Merely think about to other encounters with the stones and names might come to you with them. But before then, I suggest you learn how to harness the power I bless you with. You are the only being of the six with experience with inner sedir after all_

_“What does any of that mean?”_

The stone did not reply, but gave out an agreeable impression.

No matter. The Stone had hinted of the other beings being human, and while that could be a slight hindrance, humans lived such short lives, they were creative in ways that dwarfs were not and more prepared for battle than Asgard ever seemed to be. The problem with humans is that they knew nothing about anything, despite how quick to learn. Only a few of them knew the mystic arts, and even fewer knew about the Stones. Their ‘science’ was only just bricking onto leaving their atmosphere, and even then they were more concerned about killing each other and the planet they lived on rather than seeking the new lifeforms that lived out in the deep reaches of space. Nonetheless, there was a reason that the Stones always seemed to migrate towards Midgard, and there was a reason that the Stones picked five humans, whatever those reasons may be.

Now, what humans did Loki know that would also be a host? Strange was a big indicator, seeing as he held the Time Stone around his neck like jewelry at the time that they met, and he remembered the adventure he had with Thor and his Human Jane when the Reality Stone was around, though it seemed unlikely that the poor human scientist would be involved in it all, though she was strong-willed and strong-handed, Loki remembered.

At the end of the day, it didn’t really matter who the hosts were, as they all seemed to need training on how to use their Stones to protect themselves, after he learned how to use his own of course. But first, breakfast, seeing as the sun was high enough in the sky that it would be socially acceptable for him to start to roam the castle corridors as Prince Loki of Asgard.

Leaving the room hit him with a strong punch of nostalgia, a painful one, one that reminded him of all the mistakes that he committed, the ones that cost him greatly. It was enough to stop him in his tracks at the doorway before he moved on again. Each step reminds him of times from before, the times that brought him smiles and times that stabbed him with betrayal, and it wasn’t until he got a hallway near the royal dining hall and saw someone that he had the slap in the face that he was waiting for but not knowing that he needed.

Thor was not the same person who screamed in pain as he died.

Oden was not the man who lived to regret his choices when he died.

Mother was here.

Mother was here…

_Mother was here!_

“Loki, is everything alright this morning?” Loki turned around quickly to face the one person who was always on his side, the one person who always seemed to be able to look through his lies and know what he was trying to hide.

“Everything is fine, my Queen, why would it not be? It is almost a year before Thor’s coronation, and the people are nothing but joyous about it. Would it be hard to say that the festivities are contagious?” Just as Loki said his piece, a servant walked past with a smile on her face, a light in her eye, caught from the population’s joy of having a coronation so close to happening. People were just as excited as before to have a new change in Asgard, to have their hero take the throne that was his birthright, that he was not ready to take just yet, yet something that only he seemed to see in his… brother?

“I may be Queen, but I was taught to be a Witch first, and before all of that, a Mother. I know when there is something illing my child,” She said quietly, taking hold of his arm and pulling him away form the room that Oden and Thor will be meeting in soon, “Now come, I’m sure that the boys will understand if we had breakfast in my quarters, away from prying eyes and ears that are hung in the corners and shadows.”

Loki followed along with his Mother without question, no argument coming out of his mouth as she led him along the familiar corridors, but ones that he felt like he had not walked in centuries. It was strange to watch your own home be destroyed in front of your own eyes due to actions of your own bringing, it was stranger still to walk its halls not even a week after it’s passing.

It was the quiet click of the door closing behind him that snapped him out of his musings, the warmth of Mother’s hands on his cold cheeks bring him back to the current time, years away from what he last remembered.

“Tell me everything,” It was supposed to be a command, but there was the weaver of fear in her voice that shook it. But he listened to the command nonetheless.

Of course, the story of years would take more than a breakfast to tell, Loki having to take a couple of breaks when it got too intense, when the destruction of Jotunheim was brought up, his knowledge of his heritage and his first faked death. When he talked of his year with Thanos, his plot against Midgard (as fake as it was) and his subsequent imprisonment. It was only when he started to talk about her death did he let the tears fall and he couldn’t help the small sob that escaped him when his mother wiped each of them off of his checks, stopping them from staining his skin and clothing.

In the breaks, she told him about the small little things that were happening around them, things that Loki remembered vaguely as she brought them up, the squabbles of the court, the arrangements in place for the coronation, the latest gossip of the echoing halls. Things that Loki was expected to know, and would need to know if he didn’t want them to suspect him of something terrible that he wasn’t actually doing.

The tale ended not with his death but his awakening, and his conversation with the Space Stone, something that hummed and whistled in the back of his mind as he talked, and his mother nodded. The dark of the evening had fallen upon them hours ago, but there was no complain on either’s lips.

“Such a tale, whatever will you do now?” His mother asked, leaving Loki stumped for a moment. What was he going to do now? Yes, the Stone had told him to learn how the powers worked so he could teach the others, but there was little point if he didn’t know who the others were. Well, some of them were glaringly obvious. Dr Strange clearly had Time, since he was very attached to it when he visited with Thor while they looked for Odin, and he suspected that the Foster woman that his brother had once been so attached to was important relating to Reality, but the rest, Mind, Power and Soul were lost upon him.

He needed to find them, that’s what he needed to do.

“I need to go to Midgard,” Loki said, standing up at once, moving towards the door. It would not be suspicious for him to leave Asgard, not when he hadn’t left it in so long, and there were many ways to travel when you knew the roots the way that Loki did, and that didn’t even compare to his newfound powers, though at least a little practice at them would go a long way before he decided to pump planets with them.

“Then I wish you safe travels and a hasty return, after all, your father still needs to fall into Odin Sleep soon, and your brother will need your help while this happens,” Wise words from a wise woman, Loki noted, but he couldn’t help but look away from her at this. This man was not the father figure he craved and needed as a child. This ‘brother’ of his was not the one who learned of Hela and learned to control his power without his hammer, but one who was arrogant and ignorant of the worlds around him and the lack of power that the title king held. This was not the one who mourned for Loki two (three) times, was not the one who went out of his way to learn of his younger brother’s pain and how to help him through it.

“Of course, Mother,” Loki replied civilly, before leaving the room, the door closing behind him with a small click.


	2. Stephen I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No beta reading we die like men.

Stephen remembered sitting down in utter defeat after giving the Time Stone to Thanos.

He remembered that he wasn’t the only one sitting after the fight that they just went through, though the cuts on his cheeks were pale in comparison to the ones that Stark had gained, the stab wound on his side would likely become infected in the next hour if it wasn’t treated, especially with the alien environment that they were in and the sheer amount of dust and dirt and grime that the moon had raised during their fight. The spider kid had put some of his webbing on it for the meantime, and while it wasn’t something that Stephen himself would recommend, the kid seemed to know what he was doing, and it did make the likelihood of infection decrease by 67%, however, that was very much dependant on the fact that the webbing itself would not cause any type of infection.

“Why did you do that,” Stark had grunted out, and Stephen remembered the way that his voice echoed despite the openness of the planet, of Titan, due to the giant structures that loomed over them and reminded them of their failures at saving the universe.

There was some hope, Stephen recalled, that their one chance at saving everyone meant that they first had to lose everyone, because in the fourteen million potential futures that Stephen had looked at as research for the fight that they were about to face, there was only one.

“It was the only thing I could do,” It had sounded pathetic to even his own ears, so Stark’s anger following this statement was anything but surprising. It still made the rest of the group jump as the sound filled the area and replace the silence.

“Like hell it was! What happened to ‘let us die before he got to the Stone’” Stark had yelled at him, though his words breathless and his body void of any energy that he seemed to always have.

His memories were vaguer the closer he got the end of what he remembered. He knew that he had said something in reply to Stark, something that confused him and the rest of his audience he was sure, but that didn’t matter. He did remember a huge shock go through his system, as if someone just tore the universe apart by pulling out each individual thread, one at a time, and he remembered how painful it felt, to feel _wrong_ flow through every universe that there was for it to flow through.

And then there was no pain. Or at least an absence of it. One of the first things to be taken away from Stephen, the pain, even the aches of the battle quickly fading into nothingness. The way that his body completely disintegrated on him afterwards was a weird sensation to feel, and he could almost guarantee that only those who opened the mystic channels in their body felt it, as every other feeling seemed to fade away first, before the body gave up and turned into dust.

Stephen remembered closing his eyes, taking in a deep breath, and praying to a God that Stephen long lost hope in during his childhood that Stark would do the right thing to get them all back.

Stephen remembered dying.

So, when he woke up with his breath in his throat before he remembered to let it go slowly to make sure that he didn’t get himself up in a panic.

He woke up in his old apartment, the one he had while he was still studying to be a doctor. The one that didn’t have the open floor plan that he always desired during medical school but rather nicely done with off white walls and generic patterns painted on canvases, a double bed that had cotton instead of silk and a window that only showed him a glance of the busy New York City below him, awake despite the early hour that his alarm clock was flashing him.

6:12am.

He was being stupid.

It… It was only a dream. There was no way that he was a wizard with tricks and the sort. No, his mind was just warning him the dangerous of speeding. His hands were smooth as he rubbed them against his face, surprising himself to feel no stubble at all as his hands explored his soft face.

6:13am.

He had to get up. He had a lecture today. He couldn’t remember what the lecture would be about, but for some reason he gets the feeling that it’s hardly that important in the long run, but it was far more important that wondering about his weird dream and the sudden lack of stubble on his face.

_Today your lecture has a 97% chance about the uses of stem cells._

The voice made him sit up in shock, looking around the room for it, searching the corners of the off-white room for the person that was talking probabilities to him.

_Probability of you suffering from hallucinations in the next 24 hours: less than 0.0001._

“Who’s there!” Stephen demanded, his voice echoing against the walls and reminding him why he wanted the open plan in the first place, making him ache to be in a place where he wasn’t in such an enclosed space.

_Likelihood of the voice being the Time Stone? 100%._

Stephen swallowed, before getting out of bed, his ‘dream’ becoming the focus of his mind as he got ready for the day, the only times he was distracted from his past was when he did something that he never thought he would be able to do again, his steady hands holding his razor tightly as he shaved. A quick look at his calendar for the day told him it was the beginning of March 2010, and that he did indeed have a lecture about stem cells at 8:30am. 

_There is a probability of 0.2395 of you actually turning up to your lecture._

Well, that was not good to hear, but it hardly surprised Stephen when he thought about it some more. Of course, he wouldn’t go to a lecture about something like stem cells when he had something way more important to be focusing on. Like the Time Stone. That being said, the information that the time stone was telling him didn’t explain much at all of what was going on. He had looked after the Time Stone for just little over a year, but never before had it _talked_ to him, and never in these, somehow useful, riddles.

In fact, the last that Stephen properly remembered… he gave away the Time Stone to save the universes…

_The probability of balance never being restored after Thanos gets more than two stones: 0.9164. The probability of all the Stone’s hosts working together to make sure Thanos doesn’t get a single stone: 0.2867. The probability of all the Stone’s hosts working together to make sure Thanos doesn’t get more than one Stone at a time: 0.9495._

“Oh, they’re great odds,” he muttered to himself as he began to get ready for his day, frowning at the low quality of his clothes and suddenly wishing for anything else, his suits from when he was a practicing doctor, or even the soft robes he wore during his training.

_They’re better odds. Odds of Doctor Stephen Strange being the best candidate as the host of the Time Stone: 0.9818_

_“Do you know who the other hosts are?”_ Stephen thought to himself, sighing at the silly way of communication he was stuck with to talk to the Stone but found that idea much better than talking to himself aloud, because even though he was alone in his room, the idea of talking to himself to talk to a now sentient stone was a little bit too much for him to handle at that moment in time.

_No. I hold no knowledge, only the certainty of the past and the chance of the future._

Brilliant. Just what Stephen needed, a sentient rock connected to his being that was not overly helpful in any ways.

 _“Do I know who the other hosts are?”_ Stephen instead asked himself as he got out of bed and stumbled towards his very small bathroom, barely fitting in the shower, toilet and sink. The mirror above the sink showed him his face, like mirrors were supposed to, but it was strange to look at 2010 him, almost like looking at a stranger that you recognise. There was no grey in his hair, no wrinkles on his forehead and no small scars on his cheeks from all the times he’s nicked himself with a razor after the accident. 

_Chances of knowing each host personally. 20% Chances of knowing of each host? 80% Chances of guessing who has which Stone? 35%_

Again, shitty odds, but as Stephen started to brush his teeth and think deeper about each of the stones and who would possibly have them, a couple of people do come to mind.

First of all, the Space Stone and Loki have a seemingly intertwined fate, even after the attack on New York, but Stephen had some doubt in his mind about the Space Stone picking someone who wanted it for nefarious purposes the last time around, Thor coming to mind as a better host morally, but Stephen doubted that morals was very high up the Stones’ agenda when they picked out the hosts.

The Mind Stone was connected to Vision previously, though it was clear that he did not have it since he did not yet exist, though perhaps someone close to him will have it, Scarlet Witch coming to mind, a powerful girl thought the origins of her powers unclear to Stephen.

For the Power Stone and the Soul Stone, Stephen had no idea, since they never came into contact with Earth, but the Reality Stone did, once, to a Miss Jane Foster if Stephen’s memory served him correctly. It was way before his time, sure, but there were always the stories doing his training that before anyone could step in, she disappeared to Asgard for a couple of days and returned to Earth with a pout and no Reality Stone in sight.

So: Jane Foster, Scarlet Witch and potentially Loki or Thor, with a couple of mystery people thrown in.

He splashed his face with some water, taking a deep breath as he dried it with a towel and left the bathroom deep in thought. He had a lot to do if he wanted this time to go better, though he had no real idea about how to go about saving the world before it was in danger, since this was not part of the many futures that he had accessed before their fight with Thanos.

“My my Stephen, what mess did you get into in the future to lead you here?” Stephen stopped in the doorway at the sight of the Ancient One standing in his flat, her yellow robes the same ones that she died in and her face the same as the one that he was suppose to meet in a couple of years, not a wrinkle out of place.

Ageless. As always.

“You do know it’s rude to intrude into people’s homes without their foreknowledge, yes?” Stephen muttered out, his brain trying to get used to his situation that got weirder and weirder every moment.

“Hmm, but formalities are the least of our problems right now, aren’t they Stephen,” she replied calmly, despite the situation defiantly not something to be calm about. No, nothing about time traveling, or infinity stones making their own choices, or Thanos and his evil plan to wipe out half of the universe was something to react calmly about.

She led the way out of the apartment through a gateway, Stephen quickly following her to the New York Sanctum, not having to turn around to know that the gateway had sparked into nonexistence. Time seemed to jump at the sudden location change, and it was such a weird feeling since it was not something that humans are even supposed to feel that it made him stop in his step, blinking several times before the feeling settled and he could continue after the Ancient One.

“What, exactly, happened for the stone to react like this?” She asked as they continued to walk.

“We lost against a Titan named Thanos, and he snapped half of the universe’s population. Apparently,” he let out a deep sign at this point, “The Stones didn’t like the huge unbalance that the snap caused and decided that this is the best idea.” Stephen closed the door behind him as they both entered a non-descript office.

“That’s never happened before…” she muttered as she shut the curtains, the view of New York hidden away from them. Stephen nodded in agreement. “Are you the only one to time travel?”

“Not according to the Time Stone, there’s one for each Stone, though I don’t know who has what Stone, but I do have suspicions.” Stephen muttered.

“Like who?”

“Scarlet Witch, for example...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not beta read, so let me know if there's any issues with the chapter so I'll change it for you guys. Ngl, I hated writing this chapter for some reason. Anyway, in other news, my laptop is on its last legs so updates may be taking longer than I would like, but I haven't abandoned anything I promise!

**Author's Note:**

> If there are characters/tags that are missing then please let me know so I can add them. If there are triggers that you want me to include also then again please let me know. Please leave kudos and comments, they honestly show me how invested you guys are in this story. 
> 
> My tumblr is [Skiewrites](https://www.skiewrites.tumblr.com)if you want to contact me!


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